Exploring World Development Indicators

Vicente Martinez

Starting off with GDP Growth Rate

  • Data source: World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI) (World Bank 2026).
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

data = pd.read_csv('wdi.csv')

print("\n=== GDP GROWTH RATE ===")
print(data['gdp_growth_rate'].describe())
print(f"Observations: {len(data)}")
print(f"Proportion of Increasing GDP: {(data['gdp_growth_rate'].dropna() > 0).sum()/len(data)}")

=== GDP GROWTH RATE ===
count    202.000000
mean       4.368901
std        6.626811
min      -28.758591
25%        2.438593
50%        4.204431
75%        6.200000
max       63.439864
Name: gdp_growth_rate, dtype: float64
Observations: 217
Proportion of Increasing GDP: 0.8433179723502304
Figure 1: Plot of GDP Growth Rate Distribution

Measles Immunization vs GDP Per Capita

data_plot2 = data.dropna(subset=['measles_immunisation_rate','gdp_per_capita'])
correlation = data_plot2['gdp_per_capita'].corr(data_plot2['measles_immunisation_rate'])
print(f"\nCorrelation: {correlation:.3f}")
print(f"Observations: {len(data_plot2)}")

Correlation: 0.314
Observations: 186
Figure 2: Relationship between GDP per Capita and Measles Immunisation Rate

Life Expectancy Vs GDP Per Capita

data_plot3 = data.dropna(subset=['life_expectancy','gdp_per_capita'])
correlation = data_plot3['gdp_per_capita'].corr(data_plot3['life_expectancy'])
print(f"\nCorrelation: {correlation:.3f}")
print(f"Observations: {len(data_plot3)}")

Correlation: 0.639
Observations: 197
Figure 3: Relationship between GDP per Capita and Life Expectancy

Summary

Table 1: Table of Key Statistics
Variable Observations Mean Std. Dev. Min Median Max Correlation
GDP Growth Rate (%) 202 4.37 6.63 -28.76 4.20 63.44
Proportion of Countries with Positive GDP 217 0.843
GDP per Capita vs Immunisation Rate 186 0.314
GDP per Capita vs Life Expectancy 197 0.639

Conclusion of Analysis

As shown in Table 1, the average GDP growth rate across countries is 4.37%, with substantial dispersion given the standard deviation of 6.63. The minimum value of -28.76% highlights extreme economic contractions in some countries.

The distribution of GDP growth rates is illustrated in Figure 1, which shows a right-skewed distribution with several high-growth outliers. The histogram confirms that most countries cluster between 0% and 10% growth.

The relationship between GDP per capita and measles immunisation is presented in Figure 2. As reported in Table 1, the correlation is 0.314, indicating a moderate positive association.

In contrast, Figure 3 shows a stronger relationship between GDP per capita and life expectancy. The correlation of 0.639 (see Table 1) suggests a substantially stronger link between income levels and longevity outcomes.

World Bank. 2026. “World Development Indicators.” https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators.